Scott Tortorice
Senior Member
Considering that Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40K universe is one of the hottest commodities in all of gaming, it really is no surprise that Dawn of War, Relic Entertainment’s PC conversion of the popular miniatures game, has proven to have such enduring popularity. Containing much of the grim and gothic fluff 40K fans so love, Dawn of War became an instant classic and spawned three expansion packs. Then, just when minions of the Undying Emperor thought their beloved series had finally reached the end of the galactic road, Relic surprised the Dawn of Water community with the announcement of a fourth expansion pack, entitled Soulstorm, to be developed by Iron Lore. Bringing two new races to the mix and a campaign map that stretches across a solar system, Soulstorm promised more goodies for the Dawn of War community. Question is, with all that the previous expansions brought to the table, should fans of the series indulge themselves this one last time?
Soulstorm arrives on two DVDs and installs without a hitch. While you do not need the previous Dawn of War titles to play Soulstorm, if you want to unlock all seven races you will need the previous expansion packs. Like its predecessors, unlocking the other races involves the annoying requirement of digging out the CD keys from the prior editions and entering them one at a time. I suppose this is an effective method of validating previous purchases, but I hope a less irksome method is found for the future.
Owners of previous iterations of Dawn of War will be right at home as soon as the game starts. After a nicely done opening movie of the Sisters of Battle taking on some Tau - an improvement over the movie found in the Dark Crusade expansion but nowhere near as good as the epic classic of the original, of course – the standard main menu presents itself. I suspect most people will jump right into the new single player campaign, so let’s examine that first.
Unlike Dark Crusade’s campaign, which took place on a single planet, Soulstorm revolves around the entire Kaurava solar system, involving twenty-nine new maps spread across four planets and three moons. The nine races are pitted against each other once again, moving from planetary province to planetary province by fighting it out on the battle maps. As with Dark Crusade, some of these provinces have special victory goals assigned to them or grant special abilities to the possessor. One important new addition is the placement of Warp Gates in certain provinces. Since this is an interplanetary struggle, these Warp Gates are vital as they are needed to move from one planet to another (the Dark Eldar are exempt from this limitation). The strategic value of the Warp Gates becomes quickly apparent with the result being that these provinces become much contested ground. Overall, the campaign largely plays out in the same fashion as Dark Crusade with the different factions attacking from province to province in their quest to crush all opposition.
I do have two complaints with this campaign, though. First, as with Dark Crusade, the winner-take-all nature of the campaign map entails that even the Children of the Emperor (i.e., Space Marines, Imperial Guard and now, the Sisters of Battle) are forced to fight it out as well. While the prospect of Space Marines killing Imperial Guard seemed unnecessary in Dark Crusade, the three way civil war taking place in the Kaurava system is downright silly. It is quite annoying to be forced to fight races that should be your natural ally while your sinister enemies are gaining ground on the other planets. Perhaps someday the ability to designate teams or just exclude certain races from the campaign will be possible.
My second complaint is that the planetary maps can be hard to read. While the map will zoom in nice and close when the player decides to attack a province, he is forced to view the entire system from a zoomed out perspective while formulating his strategy. This is often a pain as it can be very difficult to read the diminutive strength values of the different provinces.
Speaking of races, there are new ones to master. The first are the Sisters of Battle. The religious fervor of these gals make the faith of the Space Marines seem tepid by way of comparison. In fact, they do look and act a bit like Space Marines, what with their power armor and such. Unlike their battle brothers, the Sisters of Battle prefer fire-based weaponry with an emphasis on multi-meltas and phosphor grenades. Another distinction is that they possess certain faith-based abilities. As with the previous races, the Sisters of Battle need to build listening posts on strategic points. However, in a new twist, the Sisters can build an additional Holy Icon on top of each, serving to detect infiltrated units and, more importantly, increasing your Faith resource limit. Faith is generated by the Canoness and the Living Saint, and powers special Acts of Faith abilities used by specialized units. These abilities include such ones as Purifying Light, where nearby enemy units are blinded and have their accuracy reduced as a result, to Emperor’s Wrath which is a damaging area attack emanating from Confessor units.
Initially, the Sisters of Battle appear powerful; however that initial impression is quickly dispelled as the player soon discovers that they are nowhere near as potent as the Adeptus Astartes, but rate somewhere between the Imperial Guard and the Eldar. A big problem with the Adepta Sororitas is that they suffer from a nagging morale problem that causes their squads to break quickly in combat. Even when a squad is led into battle by the Canoness herself, the squad will succumb to a morale hit when confronted with a balanced fight. A further problem is that the Sisters’ lack a suitable mechanized force. In a fight against teched-up opponents, the Sisters of Battle vehicles are not particularly useful with the sole exception being their Exorcist, analogous to the Space Marine Whirlwind, and the Living Saint, not a vehicle but a super-unit equivalent to an Eldar Avatar of Khaine, that can wreak havoc against all types of vehicles and units. Overall, I believe the Sisters of Battle need some balancing if they are going to be useful on the battlefield of the 41st Millennium.
The second new race is the Dark Eldar. The S&M fanatics of the future, the Dark Eldar delight in torture and pain and their units reflect that fact. Somehow surpassing the twisted nature of Chaos Marines, these “debauched pirates” rush into battle with sinister-looking blades splattered with blood. Similar to the Sisters of Battle, the Dark Eldar also have special abilities – this time powered by the Soul Essence of their enemies. Sort of like spiritual vampires, the Dark Eldar harvest this essence and use it to unleash such things as the “Screams of the Damned,” a horrible wail from the victims of the Dark Eldar torturers that will break the morale of nearby enemy units. With the construction of Soul Cages, a “horrible edifice echoing with the souls of the damned,” the Dark Eldar can construct their most powerful units and harvest soul essence more expeditiously. Of course, the Dark Eldar needs some tweaking as well, especially the relative ease of collecting Soul Essence vis-à-vis the Sister’s Faith resource, but overall I like this new race. I have always had a preference for playing the good guys, but I have to confess that these Dark Eldar fellows are a great deal of fun. There is an over-the-top wickedness to their units and attacks that just make the gamer sport a guilty grin the whole time he is playing.
The last major addition provided by Soulstorm to the Dawn of War franchise is the arrival of air units. I confess that after all the air striking glory found in recent titles such as World in Conflict, the air units in Soulstorm are a disappointment. Really, there is nothing new here as the provided air units are really just hovering ground units nearly identical to the Space Marines’ Land Speeder. In fact, the Space Marines’ new air unit is a Land Speeder, but the Tempest variation this time. The other races have similar units, with the Imperial Guard’s Marauder Bomber being one of my favorites. These units do have special abilities (e.g., the Sisters of Battle’s Lightning Fighter excels at anti-air combat while the Marauder can drop a string of bombs on ground troops), but I find them all to be pretty generic in nature. Overall, the air units just earn a yawn from me.
Closing Comments:
So now we come to the big question: should you spend your sorely-stretched gaming dollar on this latest expansion? If you are only a lukewarm fan of the series, there is little here that will excite you and you are best advised to await the inevitable arrival of Dawn of War 2. However, if you are a Dawn of War fanatic, then this is a worthwhile expansion. With the addition of Soulstorm, Dawn of War offers a fantastic nine races to satiate your 40K cravings. And while the online component needs a few bugs squished (for example, the Sisters get unlimited resources in a multiplayer match, a bug that has yet to be corrected), Soulstorm will provide plenty of multiplayer goodness to hold the gamer over until the arrival of DoW2. With a little balancing here and a little patching there, Soulstorm will be a worthy addition to the library of Dawn of War fans everywhere.
7.5 out of 10
Soulstorm arrives on two DVDs and installs without a hitch. While you do not need the previous Dawn of War titles to play Soulstorm, if you want to unlock all seven races you will need the previous expansion packs. Like its predecessors, unlocking the other races involves the annoying requirement of digging out the CD keys from the prior editions and entering them one at a time. I suppose this is an effective method of validating previous purchases, but I hope a less irksome method is found for the future.
Owners of previous iterations of Dawn of War will be right at home as soon as the game starts. After a nicely done opening movie of the Sisters of Battle taking on some Tau - an improvement over the movie found in the Dark Crusade expansion but nowhere near as good as the epic classic of the original, of course – the standard main menu presents itself. I suspect most people will jump right into the new single player campaign, so let’s examine that first.
Unlike Dark Crusade’s campaign, which took place on a single planet, Soulstorm revolves around the entire Kaurava solar system, involving twenty-nine new maps spread across four planets and three moons. The nine races are pitted against each other once again, moving from planetary province to planetary province by fighting it out on the battle maps. As with Dark Crusade, some of these provinces have special victory goals assigned to them or grant special abilities to the possessor. One important new addition is the placement of Warp Gates in certain provinces. Since this is an interplanetary struggle, these Warp Gates are vital as they are needed to move from one planet to another (the Dark Eldar are exempt from this limitation). The strategic value of the Warp Gates becomes quickly apparent with the result being that these provinces become much contested ground. Overall, the campaign largely plays out in the same fashion as Dark Crusade with the different factions attacking from province to province in their quest to crush all opposition.
I do have two complaints with this campaign, though. First, as with Dark Crusade, the winner-take-all nature of the campaign map entails that even the Children of the Emperor (i.e., Space Marines, Imperial Guard and now, the Sisters of Battle) are forced to fight it out as well. While the prospect of Space Marines killing Imperial Guard seemed unnecessary in Dark Crusade, the three way civil war taking place in the Kaurava system is downright silly. It is quite annoying to be forced to fight races that should be your natural ally while your sinister enemies are gaining ground on the other planets. Perhaps someday the ability to designate teams or just exclude certain races from the campaign will be possible.
My second complaint is that the planetary maps can be hard to read. While the map will zoom in nice and close when the player decides to attack a province, he is forced to view the entire system from a zoomed out perspective while formulating his strategy. This is often a pain as it can be very difficult to read the diminutive strength values of the different provinces.
Speaking of races, there are new ones to master. The first are the Sisters of Battle. The religious fervor of these gals make the faith of the Space Marines seem tepid by way of comparison. In fact, they do look and act a bit like Space Marines, what with their power armor and such. Unlike their battle brothers, the Sisters of Battle prefer fire-based weaponry with an emphasis on multi-meltas and phosphor grenades. Another distinction is that they possess certain faith-based abilities. As with the previous races, the Sisters of Battle need to build listening posts on strategic points. However, in a new twist, the Sisters can build an additional Holy Icon on top of each, serving to detect infiltrated units and, more importantly, increasing your Faith resource limit. Faith is generated by the Canoness and the Living Saint, and powers special Acts of Faith abilities used by specialized units. These abilities include such ones as Purifying Light, where nearby enemy units are blinded and have their accuracy reduced as a result, to Emperor’s Wrath which is a damaging area attack emanating from Confessor units.
Initially, the Sisters of Battle appear powerful; however that initial impression is quickly dispelled as the player soon discovers that they are nowhere near as potent as the Adeptus Astartes, but rate somewhere between the Imperial Guard and the Eldar. A big problem with the Adepta Sororitas is that they suffer from a nagging morale problem that causes their squads to break quickly in combat. Even when a squad is led into battle by the Canoness herself, the squad will succumb to a morale hit when confronted with a balanced fight. A further problem is that the Sisters’ lack a suitable mechanized force. In a fight against teched-up opponents, the Sisters of Battle vehicles are not particularly useful with the sole exception being their Exorcist, analogous to the Space Marine Whirlwind, and the Living Saint, not a vehicle but a super-unit equivalent to an Eldar Avatar of Khaine, that can wreak havoc against all types of vehicles and units. Overall, I believe the Sisters of Battle need some balancing if they are going to be useful on the battlefield of the 41st Millennium.
The second new race is the Dark Eldar. The S&M fanatics of the future, the Dark Eldar delight in torture and pain and their units reflect that fact. Somehow surpassing the twisted nature of Chaos Marines, these “debauched pirates” rush into battle with sinister-looking blades splattered with blood. Similar to the Sisters of Battle, the Dark Eldar also have special abilities – this time powered by the Soul Essence of their enemies. Sort of like spiritual vampires, the Dark Eldar harvest this essence and use it to unleash such things as the “Screams of the Damned,” a horrible wail from the victims of the Dark Eldar torturers that will break the morale of nearby enemy units. With the construction of Soul Cages, a “horrible edifice echoing with the souls of the damned,” the Dark Eldar can construct their most powerful units and harvest soul essence more expeditiously. Of course, the Dark Eldar needs some tweaking as well, especially the relative ease of collecting Soul Essence vis-à-vis the Sister’s Faith resource, but overall I like this new race. I have always had a preference for playing the good guys, but I have to confess that these Dark Eldar fellows are a great deal of fun. There is an over-the-top wickedness to their units and attacks that just make the gamer sport a guilty grin the whole time he is playing.
The last major addition provided by Soulstorm to the Dawn of War franchise is the arrival of air units. I confess that after all the air striking glory found in recent titles such as World in Conflict, the air units in Soulstorm are a disappointment. Really, there is nothing new here as the provided air units are really just hovering ground units nearly identical to the Space Marines’ Land Speeder. In fact, the Space Marines’ new air unit is a Land Speeder, but the Tempest variation this time. The other races have similar units, with the Imperial Guard’s Marauder Bomber being one of my favorites. These units do have special abilities (e.g., the Sisters of Battle’s Lightning Fighter excels at anti-air combat while the Marauder can drop a string of bombs on ground troops), but I find them all to be pretty generic in nature. Overall, the air units just earn a yawn from me.
Closing Comments:
So now we come to the big question: should you spend your sorely-stretched gaming dollar on this latest expansion? If you are only a lukewarm fan of the series, there is little here that will excite you and you are best advised to await the inevitable arrival of Dawn of War 2. However, if you are a Dawn of War fanatic, then this is a worthwhile expansion. With the addition of Soulstorm, Dawn of War offers a fantastic nine races to satiate your 40K cravings. And while the online component needs a few bugs squished (for example, the Sisters get unlimited resources in a multiplayer match, a bug that has yet to be corrected), Soulstorm will provide plenty of multiplayer goodness to hold the gamer over until the arrival of DoW2. With a little balancing here and a little patching there, Soulstorm will be a worthy addition to the library of Dawn of War fans everywhere.
7.5 out of 10